Confrontation
by BMeph
Summary: Two years ago, the two most unshakable friends in the universe...fell apart. Now one of them tries to figure out what went wrong, and how to make it right.


Confrontation, a Mai-HiME fanfic by BMeph

A/N: Bear with me - I'm easing my way into the pool of dramatic writing. I've mentioned before in many other places, that Idon't do angst. Except that, I love reading angst, it's so...emotionally wringing, it really makes you feel like you've experienced something. So, I like angsty stories, especially if there's a way to tie them in somehow with being a pervert, since I'm "super-effective" at being pervy (one reason why I like Chie so much; the other reason being that she's cute in her own right) and writing smuttiness/lemon/PWP scenes. At least, I did so a lot when younger; nowadays I like to entertain myself by seeing if I can write stories without it.

Oh, yes - before I jump into full-blown "Disclosure-mode," let me mention here, that this story was inspired by, and is deliberaely written to be similar to Urooj/AristocraticRose's HaruKino one-shot, "As the Snow Falls". Lately, I've been on a kick of ripping off...er, I mean, giving homage to other authors' interesting works, and this one caught my eye, so I decided to re-do it more in line with what I would have written - oh, look, I _am_ writing it!

Anyway, it should be needless to say, but (Disclosure-mode :active)  
Mai-HiME and the characters in it are the intellectual property of Sunrise Inc. of Japan. They are not mine, and this use is strictly non-commercial and meant purely for entertainment purposes.  
Because it's always more entertaining to play with other people's toys.

* * *

Two years. It's been two, long, hard, too-busy and frustrating years, since she stopped talking to...bah, who am I kidding? It's been two years since I foolishly let her slip out of my life. At first, those immediate two months, I was busy, busier than I've ever been at school, if only because it was frankly not as easy as I'd been led to believe. So, I hit the books, and hit 'em hard, and eventually, my classes got managable, as did my new-found duties with the Student Council. Hey, I did have some experience, so why let it go to waste?

Anyway, where was I...right - two months, that was excusable, I was getting used to a new routine, and so was she. Concentrating on school, when school is the reason we're here, well, that's only proper. Only later, once I found my stride, I noticed that I was having more trouble than usual, because I was missing something. I was missing...someONE. Others may like to make jokes about how she has her head in the clouds, but it seems that I did too, and not in a good way. At first, I just thought we had gotten too busy, and now that things were going slicker, we'd get right back together again; we'd been best friends pretty much all our lives, what was a few months adjusting? Only later, as the months of trying to talk to her, of trying to find her, of talking to parents and being stone-faced, did I finally understand, no one is this tough to get in touch with...unless they're avoiding your touch.

To be honest, though, I think I kind of had it coming. Those last few days together had a certain tension, above and beyond anything expectable from graduation...or the chaos we went through the months before it. I wanted to tell her...I should have told her - I didn't tell her. I didn't tell her how I felt - and still feel - about lots of things. Then the whole gradation, and the official Executive Director change-over, and moving out of the dorms...and I'm left thinking now that I really miss karaoke. I hate karaoke! Not like Natsuki, but I didn't mind only being invited when Midori wanted to get everyone from school together, but that's only for special occasions...like some of us going to college, while the rest of us are still in high school. I even asked Mai about it, but Mai was no less busy then, then she ever was.

The craziest thing is, I could have sworn that she was holding back something, herself. No problems with asking about official stuff, but after that confrontation - that one with Fujino - things were just different, and not just with me, but with her, too. I wanted to say something about it, too, but whenever I tried, we'd start talking about school stuff, or one of the committee boys would come in - or it would rain; that was just weird, not that rained, so much as the timing. After a while, I just had too many other things to bring up, and then - whoosh - Graduation Day, and all of the rest.

Once I figured out that she was actively avoiding me, I was worried, because if I'd said something, she'd have no problem telling me about it. So since she didn't, I figured it had to be something else, but I couldn't puzzle out what. I tried to leave her a letter, I threw my heart into it - and then I all but died from embarrassment, when Yuuki Nao, of all people, handed it back to me the next day. And that mouth - I screamed at her to shut up until I couldn't take it and ran off, with my hands covering my ears, and then she comes into the classroom, all soft tones, smiles, and winks for the teacher, and gives me my note back, making it sound like I'd written it for her. After that, it was another three months before I could even stand to think about trying again. It makes no sense, though - granted, we don't fight all that often, and to be honest, the idea of fighting with her just makes me want to cry - we've had disagreements, and sometimes I've out-stubborned her, and sometimes she wore me down, but we've never not talked things out, not even when she went to Fuuka first, and I was so jealous that she got to go, and I had to finish my grade out.

The only way I can figure it out is that I must have done something that offended her beyond level to forgive. Or as unbelievable as it sounds, maybe I did something that hurt her, and she just didn't know how to tell me. I just wish I knew how to tell her, and how to get her to let me tell her, that no matter what, tell me what's in her heart. If she has to push whatever button inside her that makes her snap, and freak out, I'm not afraid to take it. At this point, anything is better that two years' worth of soul-stunning silence.

Two years is a long time. Okay, it really isn't such a long time, but it's much too long for us not to even talk. It's too long for me - for us - to be trying to live with half the heart, and half the brain we're used to. I don't know about my roomates, but I know _I'm_ sick and expired of waking up crying, with an aching, gaping hole where my best friend used to be. It's been two years, two long, hideous, frustrating years, but I swear this is the end! We're finally together on the same college campus, and if I have to wade through half of her student class to get to her, I will plant myself like a tree right in front of her and I will MAKE her answer me.

Please, Yukino, answer me.

Let me be your Haruka-chan.


End file.
